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"Oh, very well!" Lisette replied "The baker’s wife froe hasto hire a new head myself It will be just fine, I’ Thoetic and truly directed was needed to head up the orphanage Whereas Lisette was energetic in bursts, generally only when she became obsessed with a project, as she was now The treasure hunt was all she could speak of

"Do you think that fifty pounds is enough?" Lisette was asking

"Fifty pounds?" the duchess asked "What for?"

"The first child to bring back all four iteh to set her up in an apprenticeship"

"That’s a very generous thought," Villiers said

Lisette beamed at him "I would love to fund all of the orphans, but I don’t have enough pin h for one orphan this time"

The worst of it was that she ive all herat her food and letting the discussion whirl around her Villiers threw in fifty pounds for another prize She was rather surprised when her mother offered a third prize, but put it down to the effect of laudanueneral air of virtue around the table

"I spend all h I hate to lower the altruistic tone by aduerite if she would sponsor an orphan as well," Lisette was saying

"Lady Marguerite is an eccentric," the duchessto look rather

"Mother," Eleanor said, "I’ood mix"

"But I feel better So--So much better Really, so much better"

"You’re three sheets to the wind," Lisette commented

"What did you say?" the duchess asked, peering at her

"You’re totty," Lisette said, louder "Top-heavy Sluiced over"

"That’s enough," Her Grace said, standing up with just a irl, and you’ve only become worse I can’t abide you" And with that, she left

Anne was grinning behind her napkin, but Villiers’s face was utterly expressionless "I’reeted the sla my mother’s temperament"

"My mother always said that your mother was small-minded," Lisette said cheerfully

Eleanor wasn’t sure how to speak to that assessrave; la venitienne

"Did you know that your children plan to participate in the treasure hunt, Leopold?" Lisette asked

He looked up, rather startled "Will they indeed?"

"Tobias at least" She returned to her list

"How exactly will the hunt work?" Villiers asked

"Each clue leads you to a location, and tells you to bring back an object We’ll give out all four clues at once; that way the children won’t end up just trooping around after each other"

"Won’t Tobias have an advantage over the other children, since he has been living here for several days?" Eleanor asked